Walking up past disher force in wensleydale yesterday spotted this beside the falls.
To my uneducated eye it looks like it might be a pelton wheel but can't figure out what on earth it might be doing there.
the large pipe, open end of which can be seen appears to have been fed by a series of clay pipes from a reservoir above the falls.
There is also the drive train of what was possibly once a small wagon?? between this and the stream.
Anyone got any idea what was going on here?

🔗Personal-Album-78-Image-87627[linkphoto]Personal-Album-78-Image-87627[/linkphoto][/link]
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🔗Personal-Album-78-Image-87631[linkphoto]Personal-Album-78-Image-87631[/linkphoto][/link]

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Hi Helen
Its definately not a Pelton, my first thought was some other kind of turbine, but looking at it, where is the power take off?

I would hazard a guess ay some kind of water flow measuring device.

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.......where is the power take off?

I would hazard a guess ay some kind of water flow measuring device.

Hydro-brake/flow restictor??? :blink:

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Looks like Chris has found some info somewhere.
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/photo/Disher-Force-Level-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-86992/?order=desc 

Must have been a bit sweaty walking up there yesterday!

Ahh thanks RJV, should have known it would be on aditnow somewhere already!!
There is a cutaway diagram of a similar turbine here for the curious

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVortex_turbine_ (Rankin_Kennedy%2C_Electrical_Installations%2C_Vol_III%2C_1903).jpg
Getting to there was pleasant enough but the ones on the fell top were a bit of a drag 😉

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Hi Sparty,
I'm fairly sure the machine is a typical centrifugal pump.
The two intake or suction pipes enter the centre of the casting and go down into what appears to be an open shaft.

Notice how the inner circular part is offset to the outer casing, resulting in the inside cavity containing the impellor getting larger in the direction of rotation, reaching its maximum volume at the outlet pipe.

There would have been an external drive from some sort of
engine and the power would have been connected to what appears to be a broken cast iron spoke of probably a pulley wheel for a belt drive. The shaft of the drive entered through the centre of one of the intake pipes, the other intake pipe on the other side seems to have a controlling valve in it. The rotating impellor would propel the water by centrifugal force out of the internal casing into the outlet ports and pipes.

I worked with a lot of similar pumps in the old Consett iron works.

Pretty certain it's a low head type turbine as per earlier posts, the two vertical pipes being the draught tubes to increase the net effective head? The rods and linkages control the internal deflector vanes.

Edit: Seems to be same, (or similar) model with the draught tubes adding 4.5 feet to the initial head of 8 feet.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/batemans_turbine_generator.htm 

I dug up this references to it after our visit there a couple of weeks ago.

There is a 1902 Gilkes Vortex turbine at the base of Disher Force that was installed in 1936 by the owners of Woodhall garage to provide hydro-electricity to the
hamlet it worked reliably, powering army camp barbers' clippers after the Second World War.

There's also a unit set up in the wheel pit of a mill at Margam Abbey
🔗Personal-Album-1695-Image-87666[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1695-Image-87666[/linkphoto][/link]

Bottom of this page is a remarkably similar looking device by Gilkes.

http://www.farfieldmill.org/index.php?id=heritage 

Bottom of this page is a remarkably similar looking device by Gilkes.

http://www.farfieldmill.org/index.php?id=heritage 

Impressive suction head at 14 feet.